As part of semiconductor device processing, a number of integrated circuits (“IC” or “ICs”) are formed on a wafer, or substrate, made from a semiconductor material, such as silicon. Generally, ICs are formed with layers of materials that have semiconductive, conductive, and/or insulative properties. These materials are deposited, doped, etched, or otherwise used to form ICs in individual regions on the wafer that are called die or dies.
After the formation of ICs on the wafer, the wafer can be singulated so as to separate the individual dies from each other. The separated dies can then be used with larger circuits in either a packaged or an unpackaged form. The die singulation process can be accomplished in a variety of ways, including through a scribing, a sawing, or a dicing process.
In scribing, a diamond-tipped scribe is typically used to form shallow scratches in the wafer along pre-formed scribed lines that extend along the spaces (or streets) between the dies and across a surface of the wafer. After scribing, pressure can be applied to the wafer so as to separate or break the dies along the scribed lines. In sawing, after a wafer is thinned, by grinding or chemical etch, a high-speed diamond-tipped saw or laser is used to cut the wafer along the streets from the device side of the wafer. In a Dicing Before Grind (DBG) process, grooves are typically formed along the streets from the a front surface of the wafer (or the side of the wafer on which the ICs are located) and next the back surface of the wafer is removed (e.g., by grinding) until either the grooves are exposed so the wafer can be separated by the application of pressure at die attach.